Button End

Button End – Where did the name come from?

Some think it arose from the small deposits/buttons of coprolite mined nearby; some from the tunic buttons of Royalist troops killed in a nearby civil war skirmish; some think it was derived from the Butts – an area/range where the locals practiced their longbow shooting.

Although Button End has many bungalows in large plots built since the 1930s there are a few much older buildings.

Hope Cottage, one of the few remaining thatched cottages in Harston, was built in C17th and was once two labourers’ cottages. It was stripped back to the original timber beams and carefully restored into one cottage, with dormers added in 1970s.  The 1940s picture shows Hope Cottage in the distance with Greystones’ cottages in foreground.

Date unknown. Greystones, one storey with a thatched roof. (Two storey Avalon to its left)

A group of cottages centred on Greystones was part of Hays original farmhouse. After a fire in 1785 the building was used and extended for 5, now 4, small labourers’ cottages – still there today. A slate roof replaced the original thatch in 1970 when it was raised to two storeys, but the old roof line can still be seen on the wall.

Opposite this group of cottages you can see a wellhead dated ’19 LG 28’ on the ditch side. This supply of water was provided, for those living in the cottages to drink and do their washing in, by the Greene family in 1928 in memory of Lucy Greene.

Fleece cottages combined were once the Fleece Inn until beginning of C20th. There was a large room across the top floor which was used to celebrate weddings and other events such as village feasts. It also took in lodgers; railway workers in 1850s when the station was built and coprolite workers in 1880s.